Ministers term Dhumal's claims on recruitment a political gimmick

Expressing surprise over the statements of former chief minister and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal over the recruitment process in the state, Himachal irrigation and public health minister Vidya Stokes and industries minister Mukesh Agnihotri in a joint statement on Friday said Dhumal's allegations were "baseless, biased and mala fide".

Expressing surprise over the statements of former chief minister and BJP leader Prem Kumar Dhumal over the recruitment process in the state, Himachal irrigation and public health minister Vidya Stokes and industries minister Mukesh Agnihotri in a joint statement on Friday said Dhumal's allegations were "baseless, biased and mala fide".

They said during the past two and half years of the Congress regime in Himachal, thousands of jobs were created in different departments with complete transparency.

The ministers said the state government had zero-interference in recruitment process and all recruitments, whether in police, forests or education departments, were completely being done on merit and by adopting proper rules and procedure.

There was recruitment of over 1,600 constables and 36 sub-inspectors in the police department based entirely on merit, they added.

Describing Dhumal's statement as a political gimmick to divert attention of the people from his misdeeds, the ministers said the former CM was still in a state of oblivion and was recalling his past tenure when jobs were on sale in the state and the service selection board at Hamirpur was the den of such activities.

"We want to remind Dhumal that it was during his tenure that such irregularities and corruption prevailed in the recruitment process. It was he who was an expert in interfering in job selection process," they alleged.

"It seems that Dhumal is unable to digest the large number of vacancies created by the government for the youth during the past two-and-a-half years, besides regularising thousands of employees," they added.

The ministers suggested Dhumal not to stoop so low and cast aspersions that were baseless and did not carry any weight.